Vattenfall is planning mini-reactors and desires to maintain nuclear energy vegetation working longer | EUROtoday

Vattenfall boss Anna Borg says she expects the significance of nuclear vitality to extend within the subsequent few years. “New nuclear energy is on the rise in many countries,” stated the CEO in an interview with the German Press Agency.

The time period “new nuclear energy” refers to new reactor ideas. This contains, amongst different issues, modular reactors with decrease output, the so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), a few of whose parts are prefabricated. In Germany, the CSU is looking for the development of mini-nuclear energy vegetation. The Federal Republic ought to develop into a pioneer within the “new technologies” as an alternative of ignoring them.

Borg stated Swedish state-owned Vattenfall would each put money into its current nuclear energy vegetation to permit them to run for round 20 years longer and contemplate constructing three to 5 SMRs. These modular reactors are to be constructed on the Swedish peninsula of Värö, which is south of Gothenburg.

“We expect that building modular reactors will lead to cost savings over time,” Borg stated. The development of the SMRs is relatively simple. Borg additionally expects studying results as a result of a number of reactors must be constructed on the similar time.

According to Borg, nuclear vitality stabilizes electrical energy costs

When requested about the price of nuclear energy, Borg stated: It is true that nuclear energy is costlier than different vitality sources. It is in fact cheaper to construct wind generators than nuclear energy vegetation. Nuclear energy can nonetheless be economical. “But we must not forget that we are converting and expanding the Swedish energy system and not just systems.”

“Nuclear energy provides baseload electricity, which contributes to the stability of electricity prices in Sweden,” stated Borg. This helps Vattenfall to stabilize electrical energy costs in Sweden. Germany is taking a distinct path: “Germany is relying on renewables – and as a partner it needs flexible storage technologies to compensate for fluctuations.”

The background to Borg’s assertion is that wind generators and photovoltaic techniques don’t generate electrical energy uniformly, however are topic to fluctuations because of the climate. Base load is the minimal quantity of electrical energy that’s required across the clock. Electricity is all the time wanted as a result of blast furnaces, site visitors lights and fridges always draw electrical energy. In Germany, the final nuclear reactors went offline in 2023.